U.S. Suffers Its Coldest-Ever Wind Chill Reading; Australia’s Summer Snow Extends To New Zealand, Leaving Behind Record Cold; + More Than 650 Dead As M7.8 Earthquake Strikes Syria And Turkey

Cap Allon

U.S. Suffers Its Coldest-Ever Wind Chill Reading

Mt Washington in New Hampshire posted a ‘feels-like’ of -108F (-78C) late last week — the coldest wind chill reading ever recorded in the continental U.S.

The brutal Arctic blast led to a myriad of records falling across the Northeast and Eastern Canada, including at Mt Washington itself: the ‘actual’ -47F posted there has been confirmed a a new record For February for New Hampshire and a reading that also ties the state;s all-time lowest temperature (set more than a century ago) .

Boston logged a bone-chilling -10F — its lowest temperature since 15 January 1957.

More remarkable lows include the -35F (-37C) at Ogdensburg, New York State; the -47.2C at Riviere Aux Feuilles, Quebec; the -32.5C at Ottawa AP (lowest since 1996); the -29.5C at Montreal (lowest since 1994).

Also, as host of sites across Atlantic Canada suffered their lowest temperatures since the 1980s, at least.

Such fierce cold in Canada is usually accompanied by clear skies, calm winds and deep snowpack. However, this recent freeze had none of these factors: this was advection cold.

As explained by theweathernetwork.com, “the cold air wasn’t developed on location”; rather, it was imported from the Arctic “and fed south by a strong low and the trajectory of the polar vortex. The polar vortex was swirling near Hudson Bay and was slingshotted south by favorable atmospheric dynamics.”

advectioncold


“The cold air wrapped around a developing low, lifting across Labrador,” continues the Weather Network. “Not just any cold air, either — the stratospheric polar vortex mixed down in what’s known as a tropopause fold and occurs near the core of a jet stream. It’s why the Mount Washington Observatory recorded wind chills colder than Mars.”

WCNH


All-time wind chill benchmarks were busted across the Maritimes provinces overnight Friday, with the cherry taken by Halifax Stanfield International Airport’s -43C (-45.4F).

Elsewhere, wind chills plunged into the -30s (-22 to -40F) through the Greater Toronto Area, the -40s (-40 to -58F) through the National Capital Region and southern Quebec, and even touched -50C (-58F) in sections of Quebec.

Looking ahead, another full-blown ‘polar plunge’ is forecast for mid-month.

Latest GFS runs currently see this next Outbreak being wider-spread, long-lasting and so potentially far-more destructive.

All eyes on this:

GFS 2m Temperature Anomalies (C) Feb 18 – Feb 22 [tropicaltidbits.com].


Australia’s Summer Snow Extends To New Zealand, Leaving Behind Record Cold

Australia’s rare February snow, which turned the nation’s ski fields into a “winter wonderland in summer”, according to the ABC, has now arrived in New Zealand with on/off unseasonal flurries sweeping the country’s Southern Alps.

A foot settled Sunday at Mt Cook, Aoraki — this after the mountain posted its deepest snowpack on record last winter.



Looking ahead, both South and North islands can expect a stark cooldown during the latter half of this week as a mass of Antarctic air gets ‘tail-whipped’ over the entire country.

Returning to Australia, with the nation’s easing snow and clearing skies came plummeting temperatures.

A host of new monthly cold records were toppled across the east, in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania: New February lows were set in Pastoral, SA; Agricultural, SA; Lower North, SA; Southwest Plains, NSW; CW Plains, NSW; CW Slopes, NSW; Winmmera, VIC; Gippsland, VIC; N Peninsula, QLD; as well as a host across Tasmania — to name a handful.


Iceland

January 2023 continued the cooling trend observed in Iceland.

Last month, the country’s official weather stations ranged between -0.3C (in Teegarhorn) and -2.5C (in Reykjavík) below the multidecadal norm.


January’s chill comes off the back of Iceland’s coldest December since 1973 (solar minimum of cycle 20).

The capital Reykjavík was even colder, posting its frostiest final month of the year since the Dec of 1916 (The Centennial Minimum), according to Met Office data. On only three prior occasions has the capital been colder: in 1878, 1886 and 1880.


More Than 650 Dead As M7.8 Strikes Syria And Turkey

At least 650 people, likely many, many more, have been killed in Turkey and Syria after a monstrous M7.8 earthquake struck in the early hours of Monday morning.

There have been more than 40 powerful aftershocks so far, according to Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, with rescue operations hampered by an Arctic Outbreak which is delivering daily highs of just 3C (39F) and heavy snows to most regions of Turkey — with a further intensification in the forecast.

Snow falling on a mosque destroyed by the earthquake in Malatya, Turkey, on Monday.


Hundreds of people are still trapped under the rubble after some 2,000+ buildings collapsed.


“The weather is not helping,” said a spokesman for the nongovernmental organization International Blue Crescent Relief and Development Foundation, who are addressing a desperate need for heaters, blankets and thermal clothing.

The cold and snow is compounding the misery for those forced to leave their homes due to the quake, making it “very difficult to survive,” the spokesman added.

https://twitter.com/Yedinoktabir/status/1622406530158018565


“Hundreds of thousands of people are impacted by this,” said meteorologist Karen Maginnis described of the winter storm.

“It is cold,” she continued, “roads could be impacted, that means your food, your livelihood, the care for your children, the care for your family. Anything as far as crops or anything growing across this region will be impacted as well. The ramifications of this are broad and will impact this region for weeks, and months.”

It is believed that this is Turkey’s largest earthquake on record–or at the very least matches the historic quake of over 80 years ago.

Stephen Hicks, a seismologist at University College London, says the previous largest earthquake, also an M7.8, struck north-eastern Turkey in December 1939 and killed some 30,000 people.


Raed Ahmed, head of Syria’s National Earthquake Center, told a state radio station that this is the “largest earthquake ever recorded in the center’s history” (the center was founded in 1995).

More recently, in January 2020, an earthquake of magnitude 6.7 hit the region around Elazığ, a city east of Turkey, killing 41 people and injured over 1,600.

Earthquakes are thought to be a sign of the times.

Seismic/Volcanic activity correlates with changes in our Sun.

The recent global uptick can be attributed to the drop-off in solar activity, the increase in coronal holes, a waning magnetosphere, and the influx of Cosmic Rays penetrating silica-rich magma.

Is Australia Experiencing A ‘Volcanic Winter’?